So I clawed my way through a 5-day Atkins fat fast, and lost ~7 pounds. Yesterday was day 1 on what I hope will be an ordinary weight loss program of 1500 kCAL, 70/24/6, fat/protein/carb (actual carbs, not EC, from avocado and romaine lettuce).

I have a pretty accurate scale, and it showed me up .8 pounds this morning. Is this normal when coming off a fat fast? I'm not going to panic for a few days, or get all obsessive, but I am going to weigh every day, under the same conditions, until I get a handle on what my food intake needs to be, or whether I need to do intermittent fasting or what.

Just wondering what everyone's experience has been.

It is very normal. In fact, it's one of the reasons why a lot of folk recommend against a fat fast.

Can I just ask why you felt the need to do the fat fast? Were you stalled (no weight loss or inches lost for a minimum of 4 weeks), or was there some other reason?

The other thing I would ask is that you post some of your regular days' food. Often there may be something there that seems okay, but our members may well identify as a common problem.

Thanks for the response.

I did the fat fast because of no inches or pounds lost for at least 2 months. (This was after about a year of being off and mostly on low carb with lots of work and life pressures and some weight gain; see my post on April 17.) I think I've figured out the likely causes of the stall: not enough fat, too much protein, and too much effective carbohydrate. (Be it noted that my carbs come from low-carbohydrate vegetables, mainly greens and the occasional red bell pepper, and avocadoes. I don't consume Atkins bars, LC bread, diet sodas, and such.) The usual suspects, in other words.

This is a roundabout way of saying that, although my diet may have looked low carb on paper, my metabolism was in fat city ... er, carb city. The reason I think this is that, after that one-day spike of .8 pounds, now on day two I'm down another 1.3 pounds. And I have a horrendous case of induction flu.

So here are my first few days of menus after the fat fast. I think this will work, and will remove obvious suspects such as cheese, cream, and peanut butter if things seem to slow down. Also, I'm not going to deduct fiber from carbs in veggies, because for the moment I'm assuming that I'm exquisitely sensitive to any carbs.


FRIDAY
2 oz cream cheese
2 eggs
2 oz pork sausage
1 cup romaine
1/2 avocado
1/2 oz salami
2 T olive oil
2 T peanut butter
1 T coconut oil
1 square 85% chocolate

SATURDAY
2 oz cream cheese
2 T cream
1 oz bacon
4 oz ground beef
1/2 avocado
1 c shredded romaine
4 oz rib steak
1 T olive oil

SUNDAY (planned--I find that planning meals is very helpful in keeping control)
1 oz brie
2 T cream
2 oz rib steak
2 eggs
1/2 avocado
1 c romaine
1 square 85% chocolate
1 T olive oil
1 T peanut butter

Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance for your help.